YELLOW-CHEEKED PARROT. 
Stirling Range birds differ somewhat from onr coastal birds in having the 
feathers of the mantle edged with red. In the latter, even in old birds, the 
colour of the mantle is a combination of black and green, with very slight or 
no trace of red : but further east, in the Lake Dundas district, I secured a 
fine old male with the edges of the feathers red and with no trace of green at 
all in the mantle. In our coastal birds the latter colour predominates. 
Perhaps the extreme eastern form would be Salvadori’s P. xanthogenys .” 
North in the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, VoL III., has only one note, 
by Mr. Tom Carter, in connection with this species, and absolutely ignores 
the existence of P. xanthogenys, not mentioning it at all, neither recognising it 
nor disputing its validity. 
It is thus seen we know little about this species, and I shall show hereafter, 
though it has little economic history it has already accumulated quite a long 
scientific account, mainly through the lack of knowledge, from field observer’s 
accounts of the variation observed. It is suggested that herein is presented 
a good field of study for some painstaking field ornithologist in West Australia, 
to determine definitely the theories here adduced. 
All the birds from Western Australia were classed under the one name 
icterotis until 1891, when Salvadori, working through the Collection in the British 
Museum, separated a bird from the Gould Collection as a new species under the 
name Platycercus xanthogenys, and moreover in the Catalogue of Birds in the 
British Museum, Vol. XX., 1891, gave a coloured figure of the species with the 
observations : “ This species differs from P. icterotis, to which it is nearly 
allied, in being larger, and in having the cheeks of a paler yellow, the feathers 
of the back edged with red, the rump-feathers and upper tail coverts edged 
with greyish-olive, and the central tail-feathers blue with no green : there are 
also other minor differences.” This careful worker gave “ Hob. Unknown, 
but most probably Australia.” As I have already indicated, the genu^ is 
absolutely restricted to Australia, so Salvadori meant to err on the right side. 
It was not again recognised until Hartert in the Nov. Zool., XII., p. 212, 
1905, under the name Platycercus icterotis xanthogenys wrote : “ Count Salvadori 
described his P. xanthogenys from a single old skin (Gould Collection) without 
locality. The adult males from Beaufort and Cranbrook have the feathers of 
the upper back broadly edged with red, and the tail feathers, even the central 
pair on their outer webs, are blue or bluish. They would therefore seem to 
belong to P. xanthogenys, which may be subspecifically different from P. icterotis. 
Unfortunately, however, the habitat of the type of xanthogenys is unknown, 
and so is the distribution of the true icterotis, if that is really distinct. We 
have specimens which must be true icterotis, but their locality is uncertain. 
The rump is dull pale green, not greyish.” 
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